Tottenham Hotspur seem to be back into the area they once were under Pochettino; good but not great or elite.
The Lilywhites have found their attacking form once again this season. However, after their early flurry through the first three months of the season, there seems to have been a stretch of inconsistency, damning their speculative hopes of even thinking about challenging for the title.
The story of Tottenham seems like one fans will remember fondly. A beast of a pairing in defence with another centre half joining to bolster their options. Fast and exciting and young fullbacks who will help the attack out in anyway possible. A midfield partnership which has the ability to dictate play and possession. A creative maestro who feeds in balls for days for the attack and can strike one from distance. A young attacker who is slowly evolving into a good player. Finally, a reliable talisman who is the heartbeat of the attack. If you gave this description to a Tottenham fan and they said either Tottenham from 2015-2018 and Tottenham this season, they would be correct both times.
The problem with this however for Tottenham is that it cannot guarantee them to be one of the top teams in the country like it used to do in the late 2010s. The problem lies in teams around them progressing even further as Spurs' progression went stale. For instance, when Spurs made their climb up the table, Arsenal regressed in form and league standings. These were the years in which Tottenham would enjoy Champions League football, even making it to the final in 2019. However, Arsenal would slowly rebuild themselves, building a youthful and attacking squad with them gradually becoming the title challengers which they have been for the last two seasons.
Tottenham within this time were looking for quick fixes with short-term specialist managers following the sacking of long-term boss Mauricio Pochettino, such as Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte, who were not managers that fit with the team's philosophy that had worked thus far. However, Spurs would not necessarily regress as much as others, with them still having their talent in the likes of Son, Lloris and Kane. They just had not been able to adapt like other clubs around them who had jumped ahead.
In 2023, Tottenham Hotspur finished 8th in the table; their worst finish in over a decade which seemed to finally be the tipping point for Daniel Levy. Daniel Levy would appoint Ange Postecoglou as the manager of Tottenham, who would assemble his aforementioned squad, which has many similarities to the team of eight years ago. Tottenham were back to the same square they were in back in 2015, whilst everyone else has been moving their pieces higher up the board.
Tottenham need to progress their team this time around, such as keeping the team youthful other than not adding to the team whatsoever with the team famously not spending any money in the 2018 summer transfer window. Should Tottenham Hotspur let their team age like they did before, they will inevitably find themselves in the same scenario again, with them becoming stale and everyone improving and climbing over them within the near future.
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